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Gene Barretta’s Lincoln and Kennedy: A Pair to Compare

14 Jun 2016

Lincoln and Kennedy: A Pair to Compare, by Gene Barretta, Featured in SLJ Post on Expository Nonfiction

September 21, 2017

Reading nonfiction is an important part of any child’s elementary education. But kids don’t just like reading the popular genre of narrative nonfiction, in which true information is presented in the format of a story. Children also enjoy expository nonfiction, which are books that lay out the facts in a clear and easy-to-understand way. In order to highlight the importance of expository nonfiction, as well as present some excellent examples of the genre, guest blogger Melissa Stewart wrote a great post at the School Library Journal (SLJ) on expository nonfiction. One of her featured examples was Lincoln and Kennedy: A Pair to Compare, by Gene Barretta!

Lincoln and Kennedy is an expository nonfiction book that compares and contrasts the lives of those two great presidents. Stewart praised it as a great example of using an engaging text structure. Each spread puts Lincoln and Kennedy side by side, and, as Stewart writes, “As a result, readers notice fun patterns as well as startling similarities between the two men’s lives.” Expository nonfiction books can be just as fun and exciting as fiction or as narrative nonfiction.

Melissa Stewart’s full blog post is available here. Lincoln and Kennedy is available for purchase here.

Every year the Children’s Book Council (CBC) releases a list of children and YA books with social studies themes that they consider to be exceptional in storytelling, themes, diversity, and illustrations. They have recently released the preview for the 2017 list, and three of our authors and illustrators have made the list!

Congratulations, Gene, Gerald, and Frank! The full preview of recommended books for 2017 as well as more information about the selection process can be found here.

Gene Barretta and Josée Masse Included In NYPL’s 2016 List of Best Books for Kids

November 30, 2016

The New York Public Library recently released their list of the best books of 2016 for teens and kids. They chose 100 books in various categories for kids, and 50 for teens. Two of Painted Words’s authors/illustrators made it to that list! In the nonfiction category was included Lincoln and Kennedy: A Pair to Compare by Gene Barretta. Echo, Echo: Reverso Poems About Greek Myths, written by Marilyn Singer and illustrated by Josée Masse, was included in the poetry category. Congratulations, Gene and Josée!

The entire list of books can be found on the NYPL’s site here. You can purchase Lincoln and Kennedyhere and Echo, Echo here.

Praise for Gene Barretta’s Lincoln and Kennedy From Pantagraph

July 26, 2016

Pantagraph wrote a review of Gene Barretta’s historical picture book, Lincoln and Kennedy: A Pair to Compare, which compares all the intriguing similarities between the two famous presidents, including their fights for civil rights. Pantagraph praises Gene’s presentation of historical facts, writing that “Gene Barretta shows kids how history can be a weird and wonderful thing,” and they add that he “allow[s] his illustrations to bring the smiles here.”

You can read Pantagraph’s full review here. Lincoln and Kennedy can be ordered online here.

Gene Barretta’s Lincoln and Kennedy: A Pair to Compare Is Out Now!

June 14, 2016

Happy Book Birthday to Gene Barretta‘s Lincoln and Kennedy! See what the critics are saying…

“Lincoln and Kennedy don’t immediately lend themselves easily to a side-by-side picture-book analysis. Kudos to Barretta, then, who is stunningly successful at creating such a book by pausing at key moments of each man’s life to see what he’s facing and enriching the biography of both by comparison. . .this will obviously catch the eye of social-studies teachers, but the lively illustrations and inviting approach will entice independent readers as well”―The Bulletin

“The text reads easily, but it’s the cartoonish illustrations―big, bold, and set in cleverly designed pages―that will immediately grab kids’ attention. . . Engaging”―Booklist
“Lincoln and Kennedy is a marvelously original and important book. I can’t think of a better way to interest young readers in American history.” ―Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty! The American Revolution

ABOUT PAINTED WORDS LICENSING

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